*** Al Fateh Islamic Center among Bahrain's premier attractions in Ramadan | THE DAILY TRIBUNE | KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN

Al Fateh Islamic Center among Bahrain's premier attractions in Ramadan

BNA/Rasha Al Ebrahim | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Around 550 people have so far visited the Ahmed Al Fateh Islamic Center since the start of the blessed month of Ramadan. More than 1,500 people visited the center virtually during the same period, an official from the center told Bahrain News Agency. Last year, the center welcomed more than 3,000 people from across the world while 97,000 visited it virtually.

The center, within Al Fateh Mosque, is among Bahrain's premier tourist attractions visited physically and virtually. The center is open to the public for six days a week from 9 am to 4 pm and tour guides are on hand to conduct informative tourin a variety of languages including English, French, Filipino, and Russian.

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Visitors can learn about the Islamic culture, history and the Arabic language, admire the surroundings and take pictures of the beautifully ornamented walls with Kufic calligraphy. Al Fateh Mosque is one of the largest mosques in the region, encompassing 6,500 square meters and having the capacity to accommodate over 7,000 worshippers at a time.

The dome, weighing 60 tons, is the largest fiberglass dome in the world. The doors are made of teak wood from India. The library of the center has around 7,000 books, some as old as 100 years, or more. The mosque, named after Ahmed Al Fateh, the first ruler of Bahrain, was built by the late Shaikh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa in 1987.